United Way launches literacy campaign

Wednesday

Jul 9, 2014 at 1:40 AM

By Scott O'ConnellDaily News Staff

FRAMINGHAM - Hoping to prevent a lifetime's worth of setbacks in the lives of children, the United Way of Tri-County Tuesday launched a campaign aimed at providing books to underprivileged preschool-aged children in town.Called Ready to Read, the initiative will give low-income families a dozen books each year from just after their child is born to the time he or she enters kindergarten - a critical period for nurturing literacy skills. The organization plans to start by distributing books to 100 kids this summer, mostly those living in Framingham Housing Authority apartments in the south side of town."We'd like to increase that by 10 percent each year," said Jen Maseda, the United Way of Tri-County's senior vice president.On Tuesday afternoon, about 20 volunteers, all women and girls, came to the United Way's Park Street offices to pack up the first round of books. Maseda said the all-female team was by design, and part of the organization's recent efforts to create affinity groups for women that can tackle the issues they care about.In Framingham, where many young kids enter kindergarten not even knowing how to hold a book, let alone read one, according to Maseda, literacy is one of those issues."There have been cases where children have taken a book and swiped their finger across it," like it was a smartphone, said Suzanne Garcia, a resident service coordinator for the Framingham Housing Authority, who helped plan the first round of book deliveries at the authority's Pusan Road apartments.According to the United Way, similar programs to Ready to Read have reported more than 70 percent of participating children who read at home have better success when they start school.To learn more about the program or to donate, visit the United Way's website: www.uwotc.org/readytoread.Scott O'Connell can be reached at 508-626-4449 or soconnell@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter: @ScottOConnellMW